Crafts workshops turns old things into artsy decorations

EL CENTRO, Calif. – A group of people have been meeting every Saturday at El Centro’s “Odds N’ Ends” shop to give old things a new look, as part of an arts and crafts group. They take a plain looking piece of wood and they say they can turn it into a work of art.

El Centro resident Queana Givens says crafts is something she would not have done on her own. “Being afraid of the investment and messing up and not having instruction,” Givens said. But now she’s one of several people coming to the Saturday crafts workshops offered at Odds N’ Ends shop.
“We get a little bit of instruction and with a little bit of tips you can do a lot of things on your own,” Givens said.

She has plans for the rustic boards she made. “Maybe give it as a gift,” Givens said.

Instructor Gwynn Roach said classes start with the basics. “We start off with a very blank piece of wood. We do a little bit of distress paint on the back of it,” Gwynn said.

Gwynn said crafts is her passion. “I’ve always liked really rustic things and this is kind of my opportunity to do that,” Gwynn said.

For some people this is a new experience. “Step out of your comfort zone even if you don’t think that you’re an artsy person,” Givens said.

For Brawley resident Patsy Robinson it was an opportunity she couldn’t pass on. “When I saw this class and I saw that I could come here and bring nothing and use all their stuff and leave with two beautiful signs is decided that I was going to do this class,” Robinson said.

She’s now been coming to the workshops on a regular basis. “It looks rustic and it doesn’t look homemade. I can say with pride that i made it,” Robinson said.

Roach said nobody walks out empty handed from the class. “People – I feel that they will walk away with a sense of ‘I did something cool and look what I get to put up’. So they have that ‘ah’ moment that ‘I made something’, and they feel accomplished,” Roach said.